ABSTRACT
The fan beam thickness (FBT) in helical tomotherapy is defined by a pair of collimators parallel to the rotational orbit of the radiation beam and is fixed for a specific patient treatment. The aim of this case study is to evaluate the dosimetric influence of changing the FBT in the treatment of a nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patient. The subject was a T2N1M0 stage NPC patient. The planning target volumes (PTVs) of the primary nasopharyngeal tumor and the left and right cervical lymphatics were delineated along with the organs at risk (OARs) in the corresponding computed tomography slices. Three treatment plans with FBT of 1.0 cm, 2.5 cm, and 5.0 cm (FBT-10, FBT-25, and FBT-50) were generated separately based on similar dose constraints and planning parameters. The dosimetric results of the PTV and OARs were collected and compared among the 3 treatment plans. The differences in the dose parameters of the PTVs were small among the 3 plans. The FBT-10 plan demonstrated the most homogeneous PTV doses with the smallest homogeneity indices (HIs). The FBT-50 plan delivered the highest dose to the OARs and the FBT-10 plan delivered the lowest. The differences between the 2 plans were more significant in the spinal cord, optic chiasm, optic nerves, and lens. This case study demonstrated that the variation of FBT in tomotherapy affected the quality of the treatment plan mainly in the OAR doses, but not so much in the PTV. Increasing the FBT reduced the effectiveness in the sparing of OARs.
Subject(s)
Algorithms , Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms/radiotherapy , Radiation Protection/methods , Radiometry/methods , Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted/methods , Radiotherapy, Conformal/methods , Computer Simulation , Humans , Models, Biological , Radiotherapy DosageABSTRACT
The demand of greater accuracy in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) has driven the development of more advanced verification systems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in verification accuracy in terms of the position error detected between cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) and electronic portal imaging device (EPID) in the IMRT of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Two groups of NPC patients (n = 22 and n = 28) verified by CBCT (G1-CB), EPID (G1-EP), and EPID (G2-EP) only, respectively, were recruited. The positional errors between the G1-CB group and the G2-EP group were compared. In addition, the magnitudes of the position errors of EPID taken in the same session of the CBCT, but after necessary corrections (G1-EP), were analyzed. In the CBCT group, 455 CBCT images (G1-CB) and 206 EPID images (G1-EP) were collected, whereas 319 EPID images (G2-EP) for the EPID group, were recorded. The median position errors detected in CBCT were between 0.80 and 0.90 mm in the antero-posterior (A-P), left-right (L-R), and supero-inferior (S-I) directions, whereas those of the EPID were all 0.50 mm. The magnitude of position deviation detected by the CBCT was higher than that of the EPID and their differences were extremely significant (p < 0.001). The frequencies in the G2-EP group with position errors greater than the tolerance (2 mm) were 32, 42, and 27 in the A-P, L-R, and S-I directions, respectively, which accounted for 16.5%, 21.6%, and 13.9% of the total number of EPID. There was difference in verification capability between the CBCT and EPID when applied to IMRT of NPC patients. Because an average of 1 of 6 verifications in EPID was inferior to that of the CBCT, verification by CBCT is recommended.
Subject(s)
Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms/diagnostic imaging , Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms/radiotherapy , Radiographic Image Enhancement/instrumentation , Tomography, X-Ray Computed/instrumentation , X-Ray Intensifying Screens , Equipment Design , Equipment Failure Analysis , Humans , Prognosis , Reproducibility of Results , Sensitivity and Specificity , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
Helical tomotherapy uses different planning algorithm and dose delivery method from the linear accelerator (linac)-based intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). This study compared the dosimetric outcomes between the tomotherapy plans and conventional linac-based IMRT plans in the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Fifteen stage II-III cancer (American Joint Committee on Cancer) NPC patients treated by tomotherapy were conveniently recruited. Apart from the tomotherapy plans, a 7-field 6-MV photon conventional IMRT plan was computed for each patient with the same CT dataset and reference from the dose constraints and target dose prescriptions of the tomotherapy plans using the XiO treatment planning system. Average values of the dose parameters including the conformity index (CI), homogeneity index (HI), maximum and minimum doses of the target volumes, and the maximum and mean doses of the organs at risk (OAR) were compared between the two treatment methods. Better dose coverage of the planning target volume (PTV) was demonstrated in the tomotherapy plans, in which the differences in the maximum and mean doses reached statistical significance (p < 0.05). Besides, the CI of the tomotherapy plans were significantly higher than the conventional linac-based plans for the nasopharynx PTV (NP-PTV) and neck lymphatics PTV (LN-PTV) (p = 0.017 and 0.010, respectively). The HI was significantly smaller in both NP-PTV and LN-PTV (p = 0.024 and < 0.001, respectively). Among the OAR, the brain stem and spinal cord doses in the tomotherapy plans were lower than that of the conventional IMRT plans. However, the doses to the other OAR did not show significant dosimetric differences. In the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, tomotherapy plans were superior to the 7-field conventional IMRT plans in PTV dose conformity and homogeneity and the sparing of the brain stem and spinal cord. However, no significant advantages were observed for the rest of the OAR.
